


Good Night's Sleep

by ObscureReferens



Category: Bug Fables (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22450405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReferens/pseuds/ObscureReferens
Summary: An exhausted Team Snakemouth settles down at the inn for a much-needed rest. But when Vi wakes up in the middle of the night for a snack, she discovers something strange going on.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 91





	Good Night's Sleep

“Welcome to the Sunset Inn! Will you be staying with us for the night?”

The sun hung low beneath the Golden Hills, the fading light making the area’s distinctive orange and red tones even richer than usual. Ask anyone who’d seen it for themselves, and they would tell you that there was nothing in Bugaria more beautiful than the Golden Settlement at dusk. 

However, Team Snakemouth were not here to sightsee; they had come out here for a mission, one which had run far longer and been more difficult than any of them were expecting, and now at the end of the day the three bugs were desperate for some rest.

“Yes, please.” Kabbu answered wearily, exhaustion palpable on his face. “Room for three, naturally. We’ll take the first beds you can provide.”

“Certainly!” The innkeeper was as cheerful as ever. “Come right this way and I’ll get the three of you set up.” Not a moment later, the zombielike bugs were greeted by the three most comfortable-looking beds they had ever seen in their lives. “Here you are! We hope you enjoy your stay.”

Stumbling straight past the helpful beetle, Kabbu immediately collapsed face-down onto the nearest available bed with a loud _fwump_ , followed shortly by his teammates. “...Thank you.” he said moments later, his speech muffled considerably by the bed.

“...We’ll bill you in the morning.” The innkeeper said politely before stepping off to return to the check-in desk, not wanting to bother the visibly exhausted adventurers more than necessary. “Sleep well!”

“This sucks.” Vi groaned, rolling over in her bed to stare at the ceiling. “They should have laws against working people as famous as us this hard.”

“Now, Vi-” Kabbu interrupted himself with a long yawn. “Celebrity is no excuse to avoid our responsibilities as explorers. Every job we do is important, be it searching for ancient treasures of unfathomable power or helping a lost child find their way home, and each deserves the same amount of care and attention.”

Vi gave Kabbu a bitter glare.

“Besides, was it not your fault that this mission spiraled so far beyond our grasp?”

“They should’ve mentioned the gate on that stupid aphid pen was busted BEFORE I leaned on it!” Vi snapped, finding it within herself to get worked up even in her tired state. “Or heck, put out a bill for it so someone could come fix the thing instead of just leaving it.”

Kabbu gave a weary sigh. “Nevertheless, I suppose all’s well that ends well. It’s a good thing none of the aphids ran too far off, at least, it could’ve been disastrous if some of them escaped to the desert.”

“Ugh, don’t even think about stuff like that.” Vi groaned. “Today was already enough of a disaster.”

“It’s a shame that I’m too tired to move.” Kabbu sighed. “There’s few sights more beautiful than the view from the balcony here at this time of day, I would’ve loved to take it in before getting some sleep.”

“Eh, we’ll be back here someday, we can check it out then.” Vi smiled impishly at Kabbu. “Maybe you could bring Neo next time, heheheh.”

“Oh, hush.” Kabbu blushed. “...Maybe someday, though.”

“Jokes aside, maybe we could just spend another day here in the Golden Settlement.” Vi said. “It’s not like things have been very busy these days anyway, we could probably afford to stick around and say hi to Aria and Venus and stuff.” She turned her gaze towards Leif’s bed. “How does a little vacation sound, Leif-”

Leif was already long since fast asleep, his chest moving in time with his breathing as he quietly snored into his pillow.

“...Well, I’m sure he’ll be fine with a day off too. For now-” Vi gave a long, loud yawn. “For now we should just worry about getting some sleep.

“Yeah.” Kabbu yawned as well, settling himself down and shutting his eyes. “Goodnight, Vi.”

“G’night!”

~

Vi was roused from sleep by her own growling stomach. She grumbled quietly to herself as bleary eyes blinked themselves open to the sight of darkness, cursing herself for not thinking about how they were going to bed on an empty stomach. Still thoroughly exhausted, she grudgingly forced herself to sit up and briefly look around the room.

Bees weren’t known for their night vision, so there wasn’t exactly a lot for Vi to take in, but starlight was gently filtering into the inn’s bedroom from the nearby balcony, so she was at least able to make some sense of where she was in the blue darkness. Praying she wouldn’t stub her toe in the process, she dragged herself out of bed and took wobbly steps towards where she remembered dropping her supplies, sure that there was something in her stash that she could quietly eat before going back to sleep.

Her gaze turned towards the balcony, the most lit part of the room. Chewing on some honey as silently as she could manage, she shrugged her shoulders. If she was awake now, she told herself, she might as well take a quick look at the stars while she ate, right? With the high sugar content of her midnight snack she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep right away anyway, so stargazing it was, she decided. 

As Vi grew more lucid, though, she began to see what she thought was a silhouette on the balcony already. That couldn’t be, she told herself, but as she squinted through the darkness the shape became unmistakable; for some reason, Leif was also awake, standing on the balcony and seemingly staring out at the town below. Now curious, she shook some of the restless haze from her mind and began making her way over to see what he was up to.

“Leif…?” Vi asked quietly upon reaching the open doorway of the balcony.

The moth gave a sharp, shocked gasp and wheeled around to look at Vi, before quickly turning back around and putting a tight grip on the balcony’s handrail, facing his back to her as much as possible. “...You’re awake.” he said, in a tone that sounded equal parts surprised and irritated.

“I got hungry,” Vi replied, mild concern sneaking into her own voice. She had only gotten a very short look at his face (not helped by it being as dark as it was), but it almost looked like there were tearstains on his cheeks. “I was getting a snack, and then I saw you out here. What are you doing?”

“We were…” Leif turned his face away from Vi as she attempted to lean around and look at him. “We also got up for a quick snack.” He knew that was a bad lie, and trying to dodge her eyes only made it more obvious, but put on the spot like he was he had no choice but to commit to it.

“Well, I still have some stuff over there, if you wanted to, uh…” Vi, to her credit, briefly tried to play along, but couldn’t resist her curiousity. “Is everything alright, Leif?”

Leif’s sigh was long and sharp, making his irritation as obvious as he could manage. “Yes, Vi, we’re fine. Go back to sleep.”

“Sheesh, you don’t have to be so rude.” Vi crossed her arms angrily. “I just thought you looked upset and wanted to know if something was wrong.”

Leif closed his eyes and took a breath. He quickly wiped his eyes, then turned to look at Vi apologetically. “...Sorry. We appreciate your concern, but we really are fine. It’s nothing to worry yourself over.”

“Are you sure?” Vi asked. “It looked like you were crying.”

“It’s nothing, really.” Leif said. “We were just, having some dreams.”

“Bad dreams?”

“No, just...dreams.” Leif closed his eyes and sighed again. “...Fine, you’ve twisted our arm. Let’s talk.” A part of him still badly wanted for Vi to go away, but he knew he would relish the chance to talk to someone this late at night. 

“What’s the matter?” Vi asked.

“Nothing’s the matter, not really.” Leif said. “We weren’t lying when we said it’s nothing to concern yourself over. It’s just...sometimes, we have dreams about our old life. Memories, really, but they come to us in our sleep.” 

“...Are they sad memories?”

Leif shrugged. “They’re just memories, really. Some happy, some sad, it depends.” He looked off into the distance sadly. “They always wind us leaving feeling empty when we wake up, though.”

“Empty?”

“It’s like...homesickness, but for time. If that makes any sense.” Leif said. “We lived a whole, full life all those years ago that’s just...gone. People and places we’ll never seen again, disappeared while we were asleep. It’s hard not to feel some kind of way about that.”

Vi nodded in understanding. “...Do you ever wish you could go back?” she asked.

Leif paused. “It’s hard not to, sometimes.” He shivered lightly as a chill ran through the night air. “Hindsight is always like that, though. It’s always hard not think about what happened in the past and wonder what you could’ve done differently, or what you wish you had done but never got the chance to.” He turned to look at Vi. “We’re sure you have a couple regrets like that as well.”

“Well, sure, but not on the level that you must feel!”

Leif chuckled. “Fair enough.”

There was a small beat of silence as the two bugs stood on the balcony, looking up at the starry sky. True to its namesake, the inn was famous for its view at sunset, but the ability to stargaze from the small terrace on a clear night like this one was also quite a draw.

“We hope Muse had a chance to see this view.” Leif said.

“...You must miss her a lot, huh?” Vi replied sympathetically.

“Sometimes, yes.” Leif gave a small sigh. “But knowing that she moved on with her life and still has family living in town at least brings us some measure of peace.”

Vi nodded, not really sure of what else to say.

“Sometimes we wonder if she was happy, in those years we were asleep, we guess.” Leif shrugged again, smiling nostalgically. “But knowing Muse, we probably have nothing to worry about.”

“Y’know, I’m kinda jealous of you, Leif.” Vi said after another short silence. “Not many bugs can say they got to be an explorer with two different teams like you have.”

Leif chuckled again. “Yeah, we suppose you’re right. Though as far as accomplishments go, that’s not quite as cool as being the first Bee explorer in history.”

“Hee hee hee.” Vi grinned. “I wonder what kind of title Kabbu could get?”

“Biggest softie in Bugaria, maybe.” Leif said teasingly.

“That’d be a good one.” Vi giggled. “...So how are you feeling now, Leif?” she asked.

“We already told you, Vi, we’re fine.” Leif said with a smile, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We weren’t even very upset in the first place, honestly. When we get these homesick feelings, crying is just a way of getting those emotions out. It’s therapeutic, you should try it sometime.” 

“That sounds so unlike you.” Vi teased.

“Well, that’s why we do it while you two are asleep.” Leif smiled impishly. “Can’t have the two of you thinking we have feelings or anything like that.”

“Hehehe, of course not.” 

Leif sighed contentedly. “Jokes aside, though, we appreciate you staying up with us like this, Vi. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to talk through our feelings.”

“Of course!” Vi smiled. “What are friends for, right?”

“How unlike you.” Leif grinned, echoing Vi’s earlier joke.

“Oh, shush.” Vi laughed, lightly punching Leif in the side. “Seriously though, Leif, you’re our friend. If you ever want to talk about stuff like this, you can always come to me or Kabbu instead of crying on the balcony in the middle of the night.” She smiled. “Especially Kabbu, given what a softie he is.”

“Heh.” Leif smiled. “You’re right, though, we’ll try not to keep this stuff bottled up as much going forward, because this was nice.”

“Just try not to get sad in the middle of the night anymore, I’m not always gonna be up to take care of you.” Vi said with a yawn. “Speaking of which, I’m going back to sleep.”

Leif also yawned. “Good idea. Sleep well, Vi.”

“G’night.” Vi tottered off back towards her bed, yawning again as she went.

Leif smiled after Vi as she walked away. His old life was gone, and he missed it sometimes -- missed it badly -- but the life he had now, and the friends he had now, were pretty good too. He gave another contented sigh and followed Vi back into the inn’s bedroom, ready for what was sure to be a much sounder sleep than before.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I said at the end of my last fic that I wanted to write way more fanfiction about this game because I adore it and here I am less than a week later with another one. Sorry :v 
> 
> I don't know what the hell has lit such a fire under me with these dumb bugs, I almost never finish anything I write but in the last month alone I've written almost 8000 words cumulatively about this game. It's weird, but I'm just going to keep rolling with it I think. It's nice finishing things for a change, and even nicer that people seem to like those things for the most part.
> 
> Anyway, this basic premise has been cooking in my head for about a month now, and the version I wound up writing took a slightly different shape than my original conception but I'm still pretty happy with it! I mostly just really wanted to write Vi and Leif having a conversation like this, I think the two of them have a really specific chemistry that I enjoy a lot and wanted to kinda dig into this idea of them being really good friends on a level even beyond the standard for Team Snakemouth. I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
